The neoliberal governance of heroin and opioid users in Philadelphia city

Drawing on 147 news accounts and five policy documents on the heroin and opioid crisis in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania published between 2016 and 2018, our analysis highlights how media portrayals of opioid users as both tragic victims and public nuisance prompted a schizoid governmental response that...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Kavanaugh, Philip R. (Author) ; Schally, Jennifer L. 1975- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2022
In: Crime, media, culture
Year: 2022, Volume: 18, Issue: 1, Pages: 126-144
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Keywords:
Governance
Harm Reduction
Heroin
Neoliberalism
opioid crisis
War on drugs
Description
Summary:Drawing on 147 news accounts and five policy documents on the heroin and opioid crisis in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania published between 2016 and 2018, our analysis highlights how media portrayals of opioid users as both tragic victims and public nuisance prompted a schizoid governmental response that draws on rhetorics of treatment and harm reduction to legitimate more punitive interventions. By describing how the state?s quasi-medical responsibilization strategy devolved to fold criminalization into its broader response, we argue the effort to wage a kinder/gentler war on overdose invests in familiar tropes of a recalcitrant drug user class that is a threat to public health. In doing so we provide a basis to critique how drug users are governed in this time of fiscal austerity, resource hoarding, and perpetual, continually evolving drug crises.
ISSN:1741-6604
DOI:10.1177/1741659021991199